Journey Girl Chevron Dress

Chavonne in Journey Girls Chevron Dress

Back in September Toys R Us released a slew of new outfits, including the one I am reviewing today.  Toys R Us doesn’t give clever names to the Journey Girls outfits, like Our Generation or American Girl does.  So this outfit is simply the “Chevron Dress”.

The fashion pack comes with the dress, a headband with a fabric flower, a red leather purse, and a red leather belt.  The fashion pack retails for $19.99, but can be found for closer to $15.99 pretty often.  Like many of the dresses in this wave of outfits, it’s pretty, but not spectacular.  Still worth getting though.

Let’s look at the dress in more detail.  The top is a black stretchy material with a bit of shiny.  It has a square neckline  and long sleeves…kind of.  The sleeves go to mid forearm.  Not quite a full length sleeve, not quite short sleeve.  With the square neckline it works really well.  There is a mess fabric on the inside of the top part of the dress.  Toys R Us started adding this to outfits that may have color transfer issues.  It makes it easier to slide it on Chavonne’s arms and the dress have a heavier feel to it.

The dress has a high waistline, with the skirt starting at about the bellybutton.  It’s not an empire waist, but it is close.  The skirt consists of two parts: a white shimmery underskirt and a light translucent  fabric with a chevron pattern on it (hence the very creative name for the dress).  Gathering at the waistline helps the dress stand out from Chavonne’s body without having tulle or a crinoline to help puff the dress out.  

Because of how the dress was attached to the packaging, my dress’s transparent layer got a snag in it, creating a hitch in the chevron pattern.   Be careful taking the dress out of the box.  Make sure that all of the little I fasteners are cut to prevent this from happening to your dress.

Look for the I fasteners on the belt also.  There should be two on the front of the outfit.  The belt has Velcro on the back so that you can take it off.  It is a thin red “leather” belt with no buckle.  Because the waistline of the dress is not actually at the waistline and there are no loops to hold the belt in place,  the belt does not always stay at the partition of the skirt and the top.  The red is a perfect color to break up the black and white.

What a cute handbag!  It is well made red “leather” with small handles.  Like most Journey Girls purses the top is open, but there is no way to latch it closed.  Since the handles are shorter, this is definetly a  wrist purse and not a shoulder purse.

A translucent red flower is the focal point of the red ribbon head band that come with this set.  There is elastic at the base to help make it easier to get onto Chavonne’s head.  It would be interesting to have this headband without the flower also.  It would change the feel of the outfit drastically.  With the flower it feels very fun, an outfit to go dancing in.  Without the flower the outfit tones down, more like a business or school outfit.  It is a great addition to this outfit.

If any of you have read my reviews for a little while you know how I feel about the shoes.  These are the newer “heeled” shoes that have recently been appaearing with some of the outfits.  The top portion is a matching red to the rest of the accessories and the sole is a nice black.  Functional, but nothing special.  The heal does make it more difficult to stand Chavonne on carpets.  Here is hoping for some new types of shoes for next year!

Ratings

All ratings are out of 10

Value 7 – The dress is beautiful.  It’s made well for the most part.  Mine had a snafu with the chevron fabric, but I don’t think that will be most people’s experience.  There are 4 accessories with the dress, which is good for Toys R Us items.  Of course one of those accessories is a pair of shoes that are blah.  Above average value, but not amazing.

Fitment 9 – The dress fits perfectly, as it should.  The headband is hard to get on, especially on Chavonne.  This could be an individual case as there is some variation in each set. 

Versatility 7 – With four different accessories the complete set has options.  You could use the headband around Chavonne’s waist or just get rid of the belt.  So even within the outfit there is some variation.  All four accessories can be used with other outfits fairly easily.  The dress has some versatility also because of it’s simple design.

Cuteness 9 – A very cute dress that is really accented by it’s accessories.  The higher waistline combined with the square neckline, long sleeves and puffy skirt all help the dress score higher than some of the other dresses in the Journey Girls line. 

Overall 8 – A very nice outfit.  In some aspects, such as it’s design and accessories, it is better than the lavender outfit.  The quality is not quite as nice though.  As with the lavender outfit, this is a great outfit to buy on sale.  Some of the other Journey Girls outfits are higher on my “want” list than this one.  Still it is a wonderful outfit and Chavonne looks beautiful in it!